The Polls are Closed. Mayor McCheese goes to...

So as you may or may not know, I had a contest that began here on August 21st and ended yesterday. I found an extra Mayor McCheese while I was out shopping at Mardens, and I decided to offer it in a giveaway here on m'blog.

Mayor McCheese here is from the Huckleberry McDonaldland series put out in 2008. To win him, my blog-readers had to submit a McDonalds memory in the comments section of the post. I had nine entrants in the contest... and sure enough today I am announcing the winner!

Except... here's a little surprise! The winner of the contest will not only receive Mayor McCheese... He'll get a Ronald McDonald toy from the same series as well! I made another trip back to Mardens and managed to find another Ronald that I hadn't seen there before. So my contest winner will receive BOTH Mayor McCheese AND Ronald! 

I'm Loving It!

But WAIT!!! There's more! Because I ALSO was able to find ANOTHER Mayor McCheese... allowing me to draw another name for SECOND PLACE!!! So my Second place winner won't be getting both toys, but they will still receive a Mayor McCheese! 

I Want You! To Get ME!

So who are the winners? Drum roll Please...

In First Place winning BOTH Mayor McCheese and Ronald McDonald we have: Tintod!!! Congrats man!

and In Second Place winning a Mayor McCheese toy we have: Hobgoblin238!!!

I need both of you to e-mail me at thegoodwillgeek(AT)hotmail(dot)com with your mailing information. I will be mailing these out just as soon as I can, and I will notify you via e-mail when they've gone out (and hopefully give you a tracking number as well). Congratulations you two!

I want to thank everyone who posted a comment with a McDonald's memory. I hope you all had as much fun dredging up old childhood memories of the Golden Arches as I had reading them all. Keep your eyes peeled on this blog in the near future because I'll be having another giveaway soon... this time I think it'll be Star Wars themed... but we'll see. 

Well that's it for me today guys! I'll be back real soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting! 

Mardens Finds!!! Plus GIVEAWAY!!!

I made a quick trip to the Ellsworth Mardens just the other day... 

I was kind of hoping I'd find some of the Masters of the Universe Classics figures I've been hearing about lately showing up at Big Lots. After all, I a few years back I found the only-released-in-Canada third wave of the GI Joe Combat Heroes there: 

And it's also where I found those Marvel Family and Justice Guild Justice League Unlimited Matty Collector exclusives that I mentioned back in May:

 

So I was actually thinking my chances were pretty good considering that track record. I don't have any Big Lots in my vicinity so I take what I can get. Mardens is a Maine-based chain of surplus and salvage stock stores... sort of a local clone of Big Lots, hence the weird exclusive toys that show up from time to time. 

Unfortunately I was out of luck. BUT I didn't leave empty handed. I made some really great finds that almost-but-not-quite had me as excited as if I had!

First up they had a pile of these Spiderwick books. I really like this series by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, but the books are a bit light, and I've been saying for years that they should have just collected all five volumes into one big book and call it good. Well lo and behold, they did just that! I picked myself up a copy for 2.99. There's a lot of great extras included in the back, including a series of other artists' renditions of characters and moments from the series! The stories themselves are good. It's DiTerlizzi's illustrations here that make the world of the book really feel earthy and amazing. The movie that came out in 2008 just didn't do it justice. I think if Henry Selick ever got ahold of this and did a stop-motion version inspired by DiTerlizzi's illustrations... it would be EPIC. Not literally the movie EPIC... which is also about fairies... but the traditional use of the word. 

I found a couple of these great, MEGO-esque McDonaldland  Characters from Huckleberry toys. These were produced in 2008 and I kind of LOVE THEM. They only had two out of the five figures available in the set. No Grimace... No Hamburglar... No Captain Crook... But they did have two! Ronald was the first one to catch my eye. To be honest, I'm not as huge of a fan of Ronald here with his rooted Barbie hair, as I am...

Mayor McCheese!!! I decided I would not be taking these guys out of their packaging as I really like the over-all effect of seeing them in there. Entombed. In plastic. Forever. I miss the old McDonald Gang... I wasn't around for the full-fledged trips to McDonaldLand with the Apple Pie Trees and the Burger Patch... but I remember Mayor McCheese and Officer Big Mac playground equipment! I especially loved Hamburglar and Grimace and Birdie the Early Bird... Sigh. Those were the days. Of course, I've already displayed my love for McDonald's themed Happy Meal toys on here before... and these two McDonaldLand characters look great on that shelf right alongside!

Anyway... I like Mayor McCheese here SO much that I picked up an extra one to give away! Yes! That's right! I'm doing my very first bona fide contest here on Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks! Mayor McCheese can be yours!!! All you have to do to enter to win is recount your favorite McDonald's memory in the comments below! It can be a commercial, a toy, an awesome visit to one of their restaurants... whatever you want. Just give me a memory and you're entered in the drawing. (And I'm sorry, but "I don't like McDonald's, so let me give you my favorite -insert other random food chain here- memory instead" won't cut it. If you don't like McDonald's wait for the next contest. What would you even want this for?) The cut-off is August 31st Midnight, Eastern time. THEN on September 1st I will draw someone who submitted a favorite McDonald's memory at random from the list (TRULY at random! I will NOT play favorites here, I promise) and notify them here on my blog that they have won their very own MAYOR MCCHEESE!!! It's that easy! OH! And I will mail this internationally if need be, so Hobgoblin of the Monster Cafe Saltillo (and any other readers I have outside the states)... feel free to enter this contest!

Well, I'll be back soon with more actual Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then Happy Hunting! And Good luck McDonald's Geeks!

Goodwill Geek Mailbag: I Won This Box of Trash... YOU GOTTA SEE.

Soooooo... yeah. There was this contest thing over at the second-best blog on the internet: Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture (It's only second best because the blog you are currently reading exists. But on the day I die The Trash Man becomes king of the internet. It's in the bi-laws. Read 'em). 

Anyway... this box showed up at my post-office. And it was HEAVY. And not in like the tense emotional sense. I mean physically heavy. I almost slipped a disc lifting that thing. We're talking turn-your-head-and-cough-please style hernia. 

Here's what it looked like when I opened that b**ch:

And I'll form the HEAD! Wearing this HAT!

It was at this point that I started hyperventilating a little bit. I had been chosen at random on the Trash Man's blog to receive what I had assumed would be a bunch of random junk. As I pulled more and more stuff out of this seemingly bottomless box that was decidedly NOT junk... I started to realize that I had become the victim of a bait-and-switch. I was not the recipient of junk at all. I was horrified to realize that I was the recipient of ALL THIS AWESOME STUFF:

Everything you see on this desk (not counting the laptop computer or the dough boy)... WAS INSIDE THAT BOX. Guys, it was like a clown car in there. Except instead of clowns trying to kill me with cotton candy ray-guns, it was AWESOME stuff trying to AWE me with... AWESOME. Let's whittle this MOB of amazing down to its components shall we? 

First up is a set of mini-figs that made me squeal out loud when I saw them. S.L.U.G. zombies!!! I only ever picked up the Christmas variants, the Series 3 Coffin pack, and I think one or two of the 2-packs from that same series. I'm hard up for series 1 and 2 zombies (and display space for them). What I was most excited by was the "Curly" zombie, which gives me two-thirds of the zombie Stooges! I just need the Larry zombie now! This also brings my "food-service" zombies up to something like... six  I think? Bizarre. And Cleopatra is just awesome. The guy on the far left is getting ready to serve up a brain like a tennis ball! Zombie love!

Next up we have a couple of the Family Dollar Joes. When I saw these popping up on fellow collectors' blogs I was sorely tempted to go track them down. Of course, when I finally got around to it, they had all disappeared. I love Snake-Eyes's color scheme here but didn't care for the bulky gray vest, so I took it off. Storm Shadow looks great too, in mostly black, but juuuuust enough white to make him... him. They're getting ready to fight here. (Spoiler Alert: Snake-Eyes is going to WIN.)

PEZ!!! I'm not even sure which of these I already have, and which ones I needed. Taz is new to me for sure. I LOVE PEZ. Some of these guys will be tossed into whatever give-away I may do in the future. I kind of feel like a putz, letting Trash Man beat me to a give-away when I've been blogging for a year. Sigh.

M.U.S.C.L.E. Guys!!! Well... at least the 5 on the left are. The 2 on the right? Those guys are from the original Kinkeshi line put out in Japan, that they later based MUSCLE on. They have slightly darker colors, and are made of the more plaint eraser-like material. I have never owned any of them before, and I was QUITE happy to receive these!!! The MUSCLE men brought me right back to my childhood. I now have around 25 of these guys total. I think I'm going to have to start actively tracking down more of them. I'm not kidding when I say these kind of hit me in the soft-spot nostalgia-wise. 

Trash-Packs!!! These are the modern-day equivalent of everything I loved as a kid back in the 80's. The gross factor, similar to GPK... the size factor similar to MUSCLE and other mini-figures... Just awesome. My oldest son is 4 and he collects these like a boss. Occasionally he gets duplicates and they disappear into my Geek cave forever. Now I have some legit Trash Packs of my very own! I think my absolute favorites are the two guys furthest to the left. The blue slug with the giant red mouth, and the gray grub with the dazed expression. Priceless. 

Here's a random assortment of other mini-figs that were included. Skip past the Smurf for a moment and look at that other little bue guy next to him. That's Jagged Tooth, an Army Ant from General McAnther's Blue Army. Army Ants are a FAVORITE line of mine, right up there with MUSCLE, Battle Beasts, and California Raisins. SO EXCITED to get my hands on this guy! Up and to the right of the ant is a figure from a line of discontinued mini-figs called Fistful of Power from the mid-aughts. His name is "Cursor". And he has a chainsaw hand. He's pretty bad-ass. The rock and roll guy on the missile skateboard is a Savage Mondo Blitzer from 1991. His name is Direct Hit. The gray monochrome guy is a Nazi officer from the BMC Toy D-Day Playset. He's pretty Nazi-ish. The last of these Unusual Suspects is a Devil finger-puppet guy. I think he's one of my favorite items to come out of this box, to be honest. Just look at him. He's amazing. Now back to that Smurf! I couldn't tell what accessory he was originally supposed to be holding, but a Google investigation turned up this: 

Image from eBay.

So now I know! 

But of course, that was not the end of the mini-figs, by any means. Top left here you have War Machine and Whiplash from the Iron Man 2 Mega Bloks sets. Next to them you have a Clone Trooper/Y-Wing Transformer (you'll see the other form below). Far right we have another favorite of mine! Storm! This is a Marvel Mini by ZAG.  Next a couple of AWESOME LEGO mini-figures! A MEXICAN WRESTLER and a GUY IN A GODZILLA SUIT!!! Two of the very best LEGO mini-figures EVER CREATED. MINE NOW. Next we have some Marvel's Avengers Chibi minis, which to be honest, I already have a complete set of. But that's okay! I now have an Agent Coulson, Iron Man, and Nick Fury Chibi miniature set to give away! Aaaand there, in the middle is a Yoshi K'Nex mini-fig!!! I am so effing impressed by the sheer volume of mini-figs in this package you guys!!!

Next up we have some packaged stuff, and some vehicles. First, a packaged Ren figure from the Nicktoons line. I've been eyeing these for some time now. I think now I am going to be forced to track down a Stimpy. ALSO!!! A Burton-era Hotwheels Batmobile for my collection!!! This one got me to shout out loud with excitement! That sucker went right up on my wall with my other pop-culture Hotwheels! In the front row, there's another shot of my Star Wars Transformer (in Y-Wing mode) a loose BttF Hotwheel, and a Johnny Lightning version of Dick Dastardly's Mean Machine. 

I don't know if readers of my blog also follow Trash Man's blog (if not, you totally should)... but one of the first posts he did over there was one featuring some weird old party favors he picked up from one of his favorite stores. I would have been CRUSHED if some of those hadn't found their way into this box... And I was NOT disappointed! The least exciting item for me was probably the pack of VR Troopers Napkins. But I'm just not a Saban live-action-stuff fan. The REST of these are AMAZING!!! Top left we have a set of TMNT party hats from 1989!!! Next to that we have Millennium Masters of the Universe Drinking cups! I loved the Millennium reboot of MotU especially the action figures. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these cups... but it will be EPIC. Finally there's an incredible package of Voltron party hats!!! Look at that image! It's BEAUTIFUL!!!

But wait!!! There's STILL MORE!!! Here is the assortment of Wax-Packs and loose trading cards I received as well! The cards up top, above everything else are Power Ranger cards. The Wax packs in the middle include Dinosaurs Attack!, Harry and the Hendersons, Weird Ball, and a 6th Series Garbage Pail Kids pack! That one GPK pack is the only one I didn't crack open almost immediately after taking these photos. It's the one item I want to keep untouched. The Harry and the Hendersons pack had almost the EXACT same set of cards that I got in the pack I remember buying as a kid. It was really strange actually. The Weird Ball cards were interesting... but not really my thing... and Dinosaurs Attack! is probably my second favorite set of Topps trading cards from my childhood, directly following GPK. I'm going to make another embarrassing confession now... finding the MUSCLE figures and the unopened GPK wax-pack had me a little choked up. Not quite full on blubbering but there was just SO MUCH of my childhood right there in my hands. It was a full on rush of memories that I wasn't expecting.

All right, the last of the loose baubles includes a handful of Double Dragon Pogs and some metallic "slammer whammers". The items in this picture that make me go completely APES**T are the SDCC exclusive GL rings promoting Blackest night. I may have another new obsessive collection to track down now. Love these. AAAaaand... the "I Saw E.T." button, which I also FREAKING LOVE. I have no idea if it's from the original release of the film, or the big rerelease... but it doesn't matter to me. Finally, there's an awesome K-9 Dr. Who keychain! It's like this box knows the contents of my soul!  

Turns out part of the reason the package was so heavy was because it was loaded with books, movies, and comics too! First up is one of these mini-books featuring a random topic... but THIS ONE IS ALL ABOUT PEZ!!! Yet another amazing item in the GIANT BOX OF MIRACLES. I feel like you guys might think I'm trying to oversell this box... but I can't even tell you how much of this stuff is just perfectly "me". 

I had to smile when I pulled out this VHS copy of "Superman The Movie". Trash Man is a big VHS enthusiast, and this is just so HIM. Probably the item that elicited the goofiest chuckle when I saw it. I don't own a VCR so this is being displayed for box art alone. It is THE item that best represents my pleasure over having won this prize package. It is truly the Oscar statuette of the whole box.

Next up are these two excellent books of two great old childhood properties. First we have "Six Guns and Shurikens" starring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This is a young readers chapter book where the turtles FIND A F**KING GENIE and are transported to the F**KING OLD WEST!!! I haven't read it yet... but I certainly plan to. Then there's "Operation: Poison Dart" which is not only a G.I. Joe Book... But A F**KING CHOOSE OUR OWN ADVENTURE BOOK!!! This is amazing. I didn't know these even existed. I love that they do. I love that I now own one. I love life.

Next up, a couple of DVDs. First, another item which made me LOSE MY S**T. Neil Gaiman's Julius Schwartz Lecture at MIT? YES PLEASE. I am a complete Neil Gaiman fanatic. And I've never seen or heard this speech. I remember reading on his blog about it back when it happened... but never thought I'd get to check it out for myself. Next to that is a Troma Pictures double feature of "Psycho a GoGo" and "Rawhide Terror" which I cannot wait to watch. They look deliciously crazy. 

Next... animation!!! Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is a movie I have been meaning to watch for years because I've heard it's a classic Batman tale, and a classic in geek animation in general. Aaaand speaking of classics in geek animation... we have He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Vol. 1. 20 episodes of MotU goodness. I have a "greatest hits" DVD somewhere, but that's it. LOVE this.

I'll confess this next one is a bit of a cheat. The novelization of the movie Alien was something I noticed Trash Man had an extra copy of and asked if I could have. So he tossed it in when he sent me the package. It's still effing cool. I've really started getting into collecting old novelizations of awesome films, and this makes a perfect addition to the pile.

Here are a couple of excellent kid's books based on a couple more AWESOME properties! Darkwing Duck "The Darkest Night" and Voltron "The Deadly Flowers". So completely blown away by these! Love Darkwing AND Voltron! And since I also collect vintage 80's (and early 90's) cartoon kids books these are PERFECT for me!

And FINALLY I got to the bottom of that box full of miracles only to find these: COMIC BOOKS! Among the titles included I found 5 Spider-Man books, 5 Avengers books (including 1 Transformers crossover issue!), 4 Captain America Books, 3 G.I Joe Books, 2 Hulk books, 1 X-Factor book, and a partridge in a pear tree! I was overwhelmed by the sheer awesomeness of these cool old issues! Some of my favorite covers (I haven't had a chance to read through them all yet) have to be The White Rabbit, Speedball, and Tower vs. X-Factor covers. These ones are just amazing to behold. These are all awesome looking comics though, and I can't wait to dig into them further!

So in summation... I was floored by the sheer amount of AWESOME packed into this one small-ish (yet back-breakingly heavy) box! I cannot thank the Trash Man enough for the free loot, and I can't wait to see what else he has in store over at his blog! Trash Man, from the bottom of my heart, please know how thankful I am that I received this prize pack it is amazing. I only hope I can come up with some sort of prize pack in the future that will make some lucky guy or gal as happy as this one made me. Thank you thank you, thank you. 

WELL. That's it for me tonight kids! I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodness! Until then, Happy Hunting!

I Won a Firefly Book from Cool & Collected!

I've been meaning to post about this for AGES but with the Halloween Countdown wrapping up, and so much other stuff going on, I kept having to put it off. But now it's time to shout it from the rooftops!

I won an amazingly beautiful book about the TV show Firefly from Brian over at Cool & Collected!

I am a Whedonite, pure and simple. The one Joss Whedon property I do not care for or about is Dollhouse, and I'll admit I never watched more than a couple episodes of it, so I could be totally off base. My love affair with almost all things Whedon began with Buffy, moved over to the occasional episode of Angel, knocked my socks off with Astonishing X-Men, broke my heart (in the good way) with Dr. Horrible, and later (much too much later) Firefly pistol-whipped me in the face and took a few teeth with it. Then of course The Avengers and Cabin in the Woods came along just to stop my heart and put the nails in the coffin. 

So when Brian announced he had this stunningly gorgeous book: Firefly: A Celebration from Titan books (it is a collection of material from three different Titan books dedicated to the show) up for grabs, I knew I HAD to own it. And... now... thanks to Brian... I do. 

See More of the Book After the Jump!